Hawaii's Three Native Orchids
07/01/2011
Hawaii is often associated with brightly colored orchids. But most are commonly cultivated commercial varieties strung into lei, sold in nurseries and used for decoration and landscaping.
In fact, Hawaii has only three native orchids: Anoectochilus sandvicensis, Liparis hawaiensis and Platanthera holochila. All three species grow in the highest reaches of the islands’ forests and bogs, but it is the Platanthera, also called the fringed orchid, that is the rarest of them all.
Noteworthy is the fact that this orchid’s closest relative is another Platanthera species native to the Aleutian Islands, which is where some researchers believe the Hawaiian species may have its origins, possibly transported to Hawaii as seeds stuck to migrating golden plovers or similar birds.
